Exhorting the students to lay stress on acquisition of knowledge, sweat and perseverance, Kalam said in his convocation address at the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, a deemed University here, that "nobody succeeded without failure." "Thinking is progress," he told the students at the spiritual centre of Prashanti Nilayam, the abode of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. "Non-thinking is destruction to the individual, organisation and the country. Thinking leads to action. Knowledge without action is useless and irrelevant," he said.

Showering praises on Sai Baba, Kalam, who had visited him a day before the Presidential elections, said because of the former's vision and blessings, the area had been transformed. It now has all basic amenities in sharp contrast to 40 to 50 years ago when there was no drinking water supply system, no educational institution and no healthcare centre.